Ghaus Iftikhar Nakodari

AddictiveTips is growing and we are looking to expand by hiring experienced writers from around the world; writers who love technology and follow new trends in tech as they happen. We’re looking for writers to cover Windows 8, Linux, OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and the Web. Writers must be comfortable with writing guides, tips, how-tos, reviews, hacks, and instructional articles. Read More

Today is my last day at AddictiveTips.
After founding AddictiveTips and running it for a little more than 3 years, it is time for me to step down from the role of Editor-in-Chief. Aatif Khan will be the new Editor-in-Chief and Usman Javaid will be the Associate Editor - a new position to make sure the quality of articles meet the standard that readers have come to expect.
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Back in August, we released Bitlocker Drives Unlocker to unlock all BitLocker drives without having to unlock them one by one manually. Today, we are releasing version 1.2 of BitLocker Drives Unlocker, also called BLDU. Apart from some under the hood changes and code improvement, it includes two drive locking options; Lock and Lock All. Now you can lock all of your BitLocker drives which have been unlocked, without going through the hassle of locking them one by one using manage-bde lock command in Windows Command Prompt.
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The most important question for us this year is a simple one, to cover paid apps or not? After taking feedback from our readers and discussing internally, we have all agreed to cover paid apps but only occasionally. Our primary goal has always been to find and cover free apps (for all platforms) and we will stick to it. This is our mission and an important one.
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Windows 8 installation is perhaps as simplified as that of any other Windows operating system. However, the users who are currently testing the Windows 8 may face a new dilemma when reinstalling or using the "Reset Your PC" option since no product keys were released by Microsoft with the current Windows 8 release. In this post we will provide you with the product keys for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Check out this guide to learn about the Windows 8 Reinstall and Reset feature which allows restoring the system to a formerly saved state.
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With Windows 7 came a feature that changed the way users interacted with applications; Jump Lists. You right-click a pinned application in the taskbar to view the Jump List. The problem with Jump Lists is that you cannot control the history of all items that show up in the list. Windows 8 now allows better privacy control; you can choose to prevent Windows from showing recently opened items in the Jump Lists.
In the Taskbar Properties, the Start Menu tab has been replaced with Jump Lists tab. It makes sense since the Classic Start Menu has been replaced with the new Metro UI based Start Menu. Under the new Jump Lists tab, you will find the Privacy option - Store and display recently opened items in Jump Lists. Uncheck this option and all recently opened items in the Jump List will be removed. Note that these items will not show again even if you re-enable the option.
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First we covered a simple Registry hack to disable Metro and bring back the Windows 7 Start Menu in Windows 8. Then, we covered a small tool called Windows 8 Start Menu Toggle which allows users to quickly change the value in the registry to switch between new metro interface and old classic interface. The problem with both these methods is that when you disable Metro, apart from disabling the Metro Start Menu, it also disabled the Ribbon Explorer and the new Task Manager. This got annoying for many users, including myself.
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So you downloaded Windows 8 and now want to try it out on VirtualBox but are constantly getting errors? You are not alone. Installing Windows 8 on VirtualBox is tricky but not that hard once you get to know the basics. In this guide, we will explain the step by step procedure to installing Windows 8 on VirtualBox 4.1.2 (which is the latest version). Advanced users might want to skip the first few steps and directly go to settings. Read More

If you are one of the first users who grabbed the latest Windows 8 developer preview, you will find that a lot has changed since Windows 7. Among the visible changes are the Start Menu, Windows Explorer Ribbon, and Task Manager, all of which have been totally revamped by Microsoft. If you are a big fan of Windows 7 and want to bring back Windows 7 Start Menu, Windows Explorer (without Ribbon), and Task Manager in Windows 8, the result is just a few clicks away since it requires a simple registry tweak.
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Gone are the days when installing Windows from USB was a complicated job. You don’t need to perform any such tweakings today since there are hundreds of 3rd party tools that can do the job for you. Which better tool to use than the one from Microsoft themselves. Yes, you can use the popular Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool from Microsoft to create a bootable DVD or USB device of Windows 8.
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Editor’s Note:Apple Magic Trackpad is a wonderful device that is only restricted to Mac OS X. If you plan on using it on Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit), you will have to follow the long hectic process of downloading and extracting Bootcamp patch, finding and renaming Trackpad Bin file to .exe format and finally installing the driver. Rather than following this difficult process, we have hosted the Trackpad Windows drivers for you at the bottom of the post.
Now that you have Apple Magic Trackpad running on Windows 7, you will be disappointed to know that the default Mouse properties is almost useless. In short, you cannot customize the speed or gestures of trackpad in Windows. This is where Magic Trackpad Control Panel comes in. It is a brilliant tool that allows you to set the tracking speed, double-click speed, and scrolling speed of the trackpad, and can be used to change both one finger and two finger gestures.
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There is one topic that we have been debating internally for a while and we need feedback from our readers for that. We would like to know what you think about AddictiveTips covering paid apps?
We are known for covering tips, and apps that are freeware. Lately, we have focused more on covering free apps since there are plenty of them around and nobody else seems to be covering them. The rate at which free apps are released every day for all platforms leaves us no choice but to cover them. However, there are some instances where there are paid apps that are worth covering too. Apps that solve some serious problems/annoyances and make life easier for users. We have been ignoring them, simply because they are not free. As a result, we have avoided covering some very nice apps.
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When users embark on a journey to select an online drive where they want to backup all their data, it can be a hard decision to make. Once you select an online storage drive where hundreds of Gigabytes of personal data have been stored, you cannot move to another cloud service easily. Online Drive Benchmark wants to help you in making this difficult decision speedily. It benchmarks and compares the leading online storage drives and shows the one which is best suitable for your PC and your internet connection.
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If you want to transcode videos from a DVD, you can always use Handbrake. But it becomes a problem if you want to transcode multiple DVDs since there is no way to automate the whole process of ripping DVDs to your local drive. This is where AutoBrake comes in. It is a simple application designed to automatically transcode video from DVDs using Handbrake.
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It happens so often that Windows is not able to format your external hard drive or USB drive if it gets corrupted. In most cases you will get an error saying “Windows cannot complete the format”. To fix this issue you can head over to Disk Management, delete the drive partition and then create a new format. Or you can use Any Drive Formatter, which is a new tool developed especially for this purpose.
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Symbian is dead, but there are millions of users who are still using this outdated mobile operating system from Nokia. If you happen to be one of those users and need a tool that can backup, restore, cleanup, edit, optimize, sterilize and fix Symbian Mass Memory Storage, you have come to the right place. SymbianTool is a free lightweight application for Windows which allows you to perform various tasks on your Symbian storage (memory).
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If you want to export your Del.icio.us bookmarks and do not care about preserving your tags and notes, then you can simply export bookmarks as HTML file. You can later import this HTML file to Firefox 4. But del.icio.us bookmarks make no sense without tags and notes, because both of them are core part of the service.
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TweakIE9 is a newly released application that can customize Internet Explorer 9 User Interface, Startup Behavior, Downloads, and Security Settings. The developer has released it today (March 14th) because the final version of IE9 is slated to be released to the public today at SXSW too. This makes TweakIE9 the first complete tweak app for Internet Explorer 9.
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Sync Blocker is a brilliant app for Windows and Mac that prevents iTunes from syncing and deleting your media when iPhone, iPad, iPod, or iPod Touch is connected to the computer. It solves the biggest nightmare of an iDevice user, i.e, stops iTunes from deleting your precious media collection. Sync Blocker, which used to cost $22, is now free.
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RAM CPU Taskbar for Windows 7 is a new lightweight portable application that displays both CPU and RAM usage on Windows 7 Taskbar without disturbing anything on it, making it a better solution than previously recommended Windows 7 Taskbar Monitor.
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About Addictivetips

AddictiveTips is a tech blog focused on helping users find simple solutions to their everyday problems. We review the best desktop, mobile and web apps and services out there, in addition to useful tips and guides for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Read more...